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[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Thanks for the nice words.

When I read that UK agents get around 80 submissions a day, I *gulped* pretty loudly.

That's a bunch.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Yeah. That would be right. *sigh* I haven't got that far yet. I'm still at least 20,000 words away from finishing.

Sufficient for the day etc.

I know a few Sherlockian writers. I may ask for the contact details of their agents. That way at least I know who may handle that sort of book.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I found finishing was the easy bit. Lol. The hard bit was the 6 million revisions and edits I did after First Draft! And then having to reread and reread it 6 milion times too. Mentally draining.

Yours is very niche. A lot of Agents out there, surely there are a couple who specialise in that niche fan fiction market. You'll definitely need the help of your network.

I had to go through the long list of UK Agents and find agents on their web pages who specifically want hist fic. That was tricky enough, I can't imagine how much google research is needed to track down agents for a Sherlock fan fic. Narrows the pool even more!

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

*groans* I was revising every month. I've had to stop that. I'll revise again when I finish, when I then put in chapter breaks and headers & footers. The cosmetic stuff.

*chuckles* The word for what I'm doing is pastiche.

Oddly enough, because I know a few Sherlockian writers it might actually be easier to find an agent without using google. I know several well enough to ask about their agent.

[Mark]

Glad your back posting Terri.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Anybody watching the Commonwealth Games? I haven't been glued to it. Watch it mostly at night, at tea time.
Been enjoyable viewing.

Wondering what our Gold Coast looks like to those overseas viewers.

The Gold Coast is about 31/2 hours drive from my place.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Not me. :)

I took one look at the koala mascot and nearly peed myself laughing.

It looks less like a koala and more like Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch". :D

[happy]

I don't watch it, but I listen to BBC World Service going home from work and they talked a lot about it (naturally:))

[Adrian]

An American friend who lives in Sydney always says: "I love it when the Commonwealth Games are on because then all you Australians get to see what it's like to be America at the Olympics!"

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Pumped for the Comm Games Hockey tonight! Men's. Aussies vs Kiwis. :)

Women - Aussies against Scotland last night was good.

[happy]

Ah Spring - when it can be 70F one day and snowing the next :)

It was 69F yesterday and I woke up to picture postcard snow this morning. It snowed most of the morning, but the ground was so warm not much stuck. It's all gone now.

It is supposed to be cold and snow most of the weekend.

[Allison]

I’m looking forward to playoffs too.....hockey playoffs!!!!

It’s been snowing all week here in Michigan....until today when it got up to 75 degrees. We are supposed to have an ice storm Saturday with a foot of snow in the northern half and lots of rain in the southern half (where I am).

Spring is so bipolar this year!!!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Supposed to be a really cold winter here this year (still Autumn though). I finally gave in and bought an electric blanket for our bed.
I haven't had one since I was a kid - mainly because when I was a teen and we all came home from a day out I found I'd left my electric blanket on and my bed was burning. I was scarred from it.

But I just feel it is time. Time to overcome it. :)

[May]

Exactly right, Allie! Bipolar is an excellent way to describe it!!! I am putting away the shovels this weekend... on general principle.

[Mark]

A poem about the weather, not by me.


A poem about the weather.

This poem by George is proving very popular.
Bugga me....
A perm by Geordie Taylor.

Ah hed ti put a ganzee ern, as ah went oot the door,
the wind woz blan a hooley, an its doon ti minus four,
me wife's dee in the wesh yi see, nuw isnt that just nice,
she's using the new poss tub, wen ah brek the ice,
am ganna wesh oot the netty, if ah kin find a cloot,
al wander rite doon wor yard, an swill the bugga oot,
al git sum coal from the bunker, and whistle a happy tune,
but bugga me its freezin, for the second week in June.

Nuw ah divent really mind the caad, it giz yi rosy cheeks,
al chore a blanket off wor bed, an cover up me leeks,
the siven bairns are happy, runnin roond the hoose,
the whippets chasin wor cat, the cats chasin a moose.
al in al am a happy man, with ivrythin ahve got,
yi have ti be happy, wi a pitmins lot.
lived al me life in this same hoose and will until am aaad,
but bugga me this mornin its bloody freezin caaad.

Nuw them doon sooth knaa nowt, boot how caad it gets up here,
they gan arund in fur lined kecks, an otha fancy gear,
but al just keep me ganzee on, when ah gan ti the pub,
the Bottles, Fleece and White Hart, an mebbe ti the clurb,
well ah better gan nuw, the wifes gan roond the bend,
shes noticed the blankets off the bed and the bairns are tekkin a lend.
the budgies flew oot the winda, and crapped in her tea,
life couldnt get any better, well mebbe..... Bugga Me.

[Jane]

Mark wrote: "A poem about the weather, not by me.


A poem about the weather.

This poem by George is proving very popular.
Bugga me....
A perm by Geordie Taylor.

Ah hed ti put a ganzee ern, as ah went oot the..."
Bobby Burns knock-off? :)

[Adrian]

My mum would love that. Her old man was a Geordie.

[Mark]

Jane wrote: "Mark wrote: "A poem about the weather, not by me.


A poem about the weather.

This poem by George is proving very popular.
Bugga me....
A perm by Geordie Taylor.

Ah hed ti put a ganzee ern, as ah..."

In the original north Northumbrian. 😁😉

[Marilyn]

Sorry but I’m an American and it’s way over my head.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

haha. That's a fun poem. :-D

Marilyn, if you say it with a bit of a Scottish accent you get a bit closer than trying to read it with an English accent (or in your native accent). See if reading it as a Scot helps.

(not that Northumbrians are Scots, they are just influenced by some of the Scot accent due to proximity).

[Marilyn]

Well, I tried reading with a Scottish accent as best I could and I got most of it (I think) but the “ganzee ern” has me stumped. Translation please?

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

That would be Guernsey. Like a jumper. :-)
Put me guernsey on.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Actually. Americans don't call jumpers a jumper. A sweater?

[May]

Yes, a sweater! And, unfortunately I need one today: snow & sleet on April 15th... 😩

[Allison]

I need one too....woke up to a winter wonderland!

[Marilyn]

Thanks for the translation for “ganzee ern”. I would have never got that one. I was born in Texas but first learned to speak in California. I came across once a little ditty that translated Texas-vocabulary into the “Queen’s English”. Ex: arn for iron. After washing some clothes one needs to arn them. Many Texans hope to find “all” in their own back yard or in their pasture which is over”yonder” instead of over there. Southerners add r’s to words “warsh rag; Warshington, DC; “Chicargo” which aren’t there to begin with; and take them from words when they are: Califo’na. When I moved to Texas at age nine I was told that I talked so funnny. But the time I got to go to England stands out in my mind when I was asked if I would share my one of my American cigarettes; I had no objection to doing that but I failed to understand the original request when the word being used was “fag”. Fag in American English translates as a homosexual. And at a wedding reception when everyone was gathered around laughing and telling jokes I found myself about a half second behind understanding the punch line.

[May]

Marilyn, this was delightful!! Thank you for those examples!!

[Marilyn]

In 1993 my husband and I were traveling through New England after visiting New Brunswick. I had to have my ear half cocked to understand them too. We spent the night in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and set out further south on our journey. We were encapsulated in our car until we stopped for breakfast in West Virginia. Wow, what a shock to one’s system. The waitress who came to our table, smiled really friendly-like and out came pure Southern mush. And continuing on: a Yank is an American but a “Yankee” (accordingly to a Southerner) is someone who hails from north of the Mason-Dixon Line which delineated the line where slavery was legal. A Yankee was also soldier who fought against the old southern Confederacy.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I've often had American's say to me "I'm not a Yankee." When I have used our Australian slang term 'yank'.
I say that is not what it means here, that it is a broad term we use for all Americans. Like Pom for all British.

I try not to use Yank on Goodreads because of these instances. Knowing some Americans actually get offended at the very idea that someone would call them a Yankee.

Explaining it isn't yankee doesn't help. :)

[May]

Being from New England, I am a proud Yankee!! Terri, feel free to use that term with me anytime!!!😉

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Righto, Yank. :-D

[May]

🤗

[Marilyn]

Forty years after the American Civil War ended my Yankee grandfather went south to Texas to work the oil fields there and met and married my grandmother. Their first son was named Grant Lee —- 😊

[May]

I love that stuff!! Thank you for sharing!!

[Andy]

Terri wrote: "I've often had American's say to me "I'm not a Yankee." When I have used our Australian slang term 'yank'.
I say that is not what it means here, that it is a broad term we use for all Americans. L..."

We jus call them "Septic"....... keeps them guessing for a while

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Rhyming slang. Andy isn't actually calling Americans septic. There's some rhyming slang that begins with septic.

[Adrian]

Reminds me of that line from The Odd Angry Shot (an Australian Vietnam war movie) when one of the Australians meets an American and says: "How's it goin' me ol' septic China?"

[happy]

When my father's unit was activated for the Berlin Crisis, he was sent to Ft. Hood Texas. After a little while my family caught the train to join him. My mom had only been out of Utah once in her life (a year in California when she was 10).

Dad picked us up at the train station and we stopped for something at a store and after paying for purchases and as we were leaving, the clerk said, "Ya'all com back now - heah" My mom turn around and went back to the counter thinking she had left something. "Ya'll..." is just a way of saying Good bye in Texan :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Beverley Hillbillies sorted us all out on that one eventually didn't they? :-)

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Oh bugger! I now have an ear-worm! Thanks Terri. :D

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

You're welcome. But know...I also gave it to myself. :/

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Can I fix it by mentioning Mr. Ed?
I now have that one in my head.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Buawaahhahahahahahahahaa

[Adrian]

I have to have a periodic ointment treatment for sunspots (my pathetic Celtic skin does not belong in Australia) which turns me into a zombie and makes me very sick. I'm trying a gentler (so they say) treatment this time which is certainly slower acting but it's making me really sick. The previous treatment was bad enough but at least it didn't give me...erm...I'll just leave it there.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

How has your revovery gone after the removal of the basal cell carcinoma , Adrian? Will it affect your modelling career? :-) but seriously, did they get it all?

We poor Aussies and our busted skin. I look at the pommies fresh off the boat and they always seem to have soft baby skin! Until our sun cooks them up.
They just don't go to wrinkles like we (European decent) Aussies who grow up here do. :)

[Adrian]

Hi Terri, no they didn't get it all which is why I'm having this ointment treatment in the hope of scouring away the remaining cells before they regrow into something requiring more radical surgery.

But my face would make an excellent model...for a sandpaper magazine.

[happy]

Adrian, I can feel you pain - I've had a couple of skin cancers surgically removed - the first was melanoma off of my shoulder blade a few yrs ago and more recently a basal cell off of my chin. I joke that if the basal cell had been 2 inches higher, I'd have a nice dueling scar to impress the ladies, except a 150yrs too late:)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Youch, the ointment sounds bloody awful.

You know, apparently Australians do like a bit of sandpaper. Could make you popular outside your local cricket club shed.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

happy, the ladies go in for a bit of sexy facial scarring and a tale to tell. Maybe instead of dueling..a sniper grazed you when you were laying down some suppressive fire as a door gunner?? When you were coming in hot to the LZ.

[May]

Terri, is that the plot line to your next book??? 😉